Bamboo plants are one of the world’s most versatile resources. Bamboo, because of its strength and flexibility, has been used for hundreds of years as a major building material in countries like Japan and China. But aside from furniture building and architecture, bamboo plants are also used for a wide array of purposes. One of the most interesting areas where bamboo is used is in the creation of instruments. Because bamboo is hollow like pipe, it makes for a natural wind instrument, and cultures from all over the world have used it to their musical advantage.

Wind moving through bamboo forests or thickets makes symphony orchestras seem impotent. Wind moving little pieces of bamboo to strike against each other gives joy and peace to those who hear it.

Like grass it grows rapidly and propagates itself if left alone. Like wood it is strong, grows many places and has many, many uses. Given its way, bamboo will hold hillsides in place against raging waters unleashed from above. Given its way, growing profusely among peoples judged materially poorest on the planet, without gigantic industries cutting, gathering, processing, transporting it; bamboo is here, waiting to serve. It is here to shelter, to fashion tools, to weave baskets, to help water obey, to provide beauty and sounds.
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family (Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae). Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family.

In bamboo, as with other grasses, the internodal regions of the plant stem are hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, even of palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

Bamboos are also the fastest growing woody plants in the world. They are capable of growing up to 60 centimeters (24 in.) or more per day due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. However, this astounding growth rate is highly dependent on local soil and climatic conditions.

Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in East Asia and South East Asia where the stems are used extensively in everyday life as building materials and as a highly versatile raw product, and the shoots as a food source.

There are more than 70 genera divided into about 1,450 species] They are found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. They occur across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin through to Northern Australia, and west to India and the Himalayas.They also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Americas from the Mid-Atlantic United States south to Argentina and Chile, reaching their southernmost point anywhere, at 47°S latitude. Continental Europe is not known to have any native species of bamboo.

Bamboo is the fastest-growing woody plant on Earth; it has been measured surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (48 in) in a 24-hour period,[6] and can also reach maximal growth rate exceeding one meter (39 inches) per hour for short periods of time. Many prehistoric bamboos exceeded heights of 85 metres (279 ft). Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the Cretaceous period, vast fields existed in what is now Asia.

Unlike trees, all bamboo have the potential to grow to full height and girth in a single growing season of 3–4 months. During this first season, the clump of young shoots grow vertically, with no branching. In the next year, the pulpy wall of each culm slowly dries and hardens. The culm begins to sprout branches and leaves from each node. During the third year, the culm further hardens. The shoot is now considered a fully mature culm. Over the next 2–5 years (depending on species), fungus and mould begin to form on the outside of the culm, which eventually penetrate and overcome the culm. Around 5 – 8 years later (species and climate dependent), the fungal and mold growth cause the culm to collapse and decay. This brief life means culms are ready for harvest and suitable for use in construction within 3 – 7 years

Source: Wikipedia, Odysey Leadership Centre.

風起雲湧 變幻萬千 Everchanging Cloudscape / 寧 Serenity 延時攝影 Time Lapse Photography / SML.20130706.6D.18062-SML.20130706.6D.18889-TLImage by See-ming Lee (SML)
I did not begin to appreciate the magic of cloudscapes until I started working with time-lapse photography. The clouds during sunset in Hong Kong’s typhoon season is most incredible, and combined with sunset the color fidelity is second to none.

The time-lapse which I have shot in the past were output directly from camera without much processing, mainly as I did not see it possible to process each RAW capture by hand to create a video. However, a friend on Instagram recommended that I checked out LRTimelapse, which allows me to set a few shots in the RAW captures as keyframes and then batch it over the entire sequence.

With this new tool in hand, I am able to process each capture to my standards and then sequenced it together inside Premiere Pro.

The title of this sequence is by my auntie Rita Lee in Hong Kong. The soundtrack is found on SoundCloud on tracks licensed via Creative Commons. This video could not have been made without all the fantastic creative resources available. Once again, CC rocks!

Climatic Civilization DeclineImage by Jeffrey Sullivan
The Grand Gulch / Cedar Mesa area in Southeastern Utah is littered with old ruins of Ancient Pueblan dwellings and granaries. Many ancient cultures such as the Mayans and Ancient Pueblans succumbed to droughts, as we’re seeing spread in Africa, China, and the Western U.S.. Some leading scientists are forecasting a crash in global human population to 500 million by the end of this century. We’re seeing clear changes and acceleration now in places like Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland, and many of us will live to see them affect global economies and societies. The survival of our children, and their children, are the stakes.

Global scientific collaboration is starting to gain an understanding of how natural (climate) and human (deforestation. topsoil erosion, population) forces have shaped human history. This will help us more completely understand, and hopefully influence, our future.

Projects such as the Integrated History of People on Earth (IHOPE), International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), and the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA, devoted to studying all aspects of the Quaternary Period, the last 2 million years of Earth history) promise to give us the knowledge and tools to make more informed decisions about our future.

After 20+ years of largely ignoring the evidence (such as presented in the watered-down government-reviewed IPCC reports), we may no longer have the luxury of being able to wait and see what happens before our fate will be decided for us.